What is your dream?

As the New Year starts, traditionally we make resolutions. But, this year, instead of the usual list of things to do and things not to do, maybe we should aim bigger?

Too often when we make resolutions, they are a list of rules that limit what we can and can’t do. We start the new year by restricting ourselves in the hope that it will produce something better further down the line. But our brains resist limitation, we are hard-wired to push back against constraint and to want temptations that we are told we can’t have. Our brains are programmed for instant reward, rather than long term gain. This harks all the way back to Eve in the garden of Eden, who took the shiny apple despite the repercussions. On a more mundane level, think of that packet of biscuits in your cupboard: as soon as you are told you can’t have them, they call to you relentlessly. It much easier to find an equilibrium that is right for you when there is no external restrictions.

Over the last 2 years there have been so many new and external restrictions imposed that life is in some ways unrecognisable. For some, it is easy to slip back into previous freedoms once rules are relaxed. For others, living with such high levels of anxiety-producing circumstances for such a long time, these restrictions become ‘the new normal’, however unintentional that may be.

Even before all the extra restrictions of the pandemic, modern life has so many demands that many people find their time full and over-flowing just to keep up with all their different roles – work, relationships, family, children, friends, trying to keep fit, to follow the ‘right’ diet, to have the ‘right’ things, to go to all the places, to do the ‘right’ thing.

Whilst we are so busy keeping up with all of these things, it is easy to lose sight of what you really want whilst we are distracted by all life’s seeming necessities.

So often, when I ask my coaching clients “what do you actually want?” they don’t know the answer. They often start by telling me about a list of things that they have to do, but none of it is really what is at the core of their being.

So, I ask you, what is your what is your dream?

What have you always wanted?

What can you aim for?

How can you grow into the person you want to be?

If there were no limits, what would you do?

At the moment it feels like we are limited in so many ways, but maybe that is the very reason that now is the time to take stock and look ahead and dream bigger. Focus on what is possible and what you can become. So today, instead of making limiting resolutions, take a moment to think about all the possibilities in front of us in a whole new year.

Ask yourself two questions:

What do I really want?

what is my dream?

I am able to take on a few new clients for 1:1 coaching to support you to work towards following your dreams. Book a free discovery call by contacting me here or via www.wellbeingdoctor.net and take the first step to making this year what you want it to be.